1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to computer systems, and more particularly relates to managing lists of addresses of resources in a network for subsequent visitation.
2. Description of Related Art
In real-time broadcast media that present transitory information, such as television, references to other information or media have become commonplace. For example, television advertisers often include contact information such as a business address or telephone number in a television advertisement so that viewers of the advertisement can locate the business after the advertisement has disappeared from the screen.
As another example, due in part to the explosive growth of the globally accessible computer network known as the Internet, it has become commonplace for advertisers and other users of broadcast media to include an Internet address in broadcast advertisements.
One popular technololgy enjoying wide use with the Internet is known as the World Wide Web. The World Wide Web enables a computer to locate a remote server using a server name in an agreed-upon format that is indexed at a central Domain Name Server (DNS); the computer can then retrieve information using a communication protocol called the Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP). A Uniform Resource Locator (URL) uniquely identifies each page of information stored on the remote server. A URL is a form of network address that identifies the location of information stored in a network. The pages of information are files prepared in the Hypertext Markup Language (HTML).
As use of the World Wide Web has soared, advertisers have also begun to include URLs in broadcast advertisements so that users often see URLs while they are watching television or other broadcasts. The URLs typically identify a Web server or pages on a Web server that contain information about the products that are advertised. For example, a URL may be listed in a commercial or it may be shown on the screen as part of a show. Typically this is done in news broadcasts or documentaries, though many entertainment shows also have websites that are listed at some time during the broadcast.
URLs also may be encountered when a user is browsing the Web and the user sees a URL or link that is interesting while reviewing a Web document. This can occur at a time when it is inconvenient for the user to immediately review the referenced document or link. However, if the URL or link is not immediately investigated, the user may forget its identity or location later when time is available to investigate it.
URLs also may be received in a message to the user, such as an email message from another person who is recommending review of a particular website. Often such URLs are encountered at a time when it is inconvenient for the user to immediately review the website identified by the URL. For example, a user may receive an email message from a friend recommending a xe2x80x9ccool sitexe2x80x9d at a time when the user needs to concentrate on other work.
Guided tours were described by Trigg in 1988 as a way to recommend a xe2x80x9cnext place to goxe2x80x9d to a user at any time during the user""s navigation of a hypertext, as disclosed in R. Trigg, xe2x80x9cGuided Tours and Tabletops: Tools for communicating in a hypertext environment,xe2x80x9d ACM Trans. Office Information Systems 6, 4 (October 1988), pp. 398-414. In Trigg, the author of a hypertext document defines a guided tour of a closed and pre-planned hypertext document or hypertext space. The guided tour is conceptually tied into each specific hypertext node and provided a recommended next place to go from that node as defined by the author.
The Problems
While the Trigg approach provides a way to store a list of locations in a hypertext document for later review, it has several significant disadvantages. For example, the list of locations is pre-defined by the author of the hypertext. It is desirable to provide a way for a user to define a personal, delayed-intention Web tour on the fly while the user is browsing an unbounded hypertext space. It is also desirable to have such Web tours tied into the user""s behavior so that the locations defined in the tour are independent of any outside author.
Another disadvantage of the author-defined guided tour approach is that the list of locations to be toured is not altered as the tour takes place. There is a need for a system that can provide a list of locations to be toured, integrated with a touring mechanism such as a Web browser, so that items in the list are removed from the list when the browser visits that location. Thus, there is a need for a system that provides a way for a list of locations to be automatically pruned as the locations are visited.
Further, it is typically difficult for a person exposed to a broadcast or advertisement to make a note of the URL, for later use. The URL generally appears in the broadcast advertisement only for a brief moment, for example, in the form of a spoken series of words in a radio advertisement, or a text string flashed on a television screen at the conclusion of a TV ad. Also, some URLs are quite long and need to be spelled with 100% accuracy to be useful. They include unusual typed characters such as colons, slashes and xe2x80x9cxcx9cxe2x80x9d characters. These characters and other parts of the URL must be remembered and reproduced correctly, or the URL cannot be used successfully to retrieve a Web page.
In addition, even if the person exposed to the advertisement successfully records a URL, for example, by writing it down, it must be manually keyed into a computer system in order to access the associated Web page. Also, not all URLs have any secondary or mnemonic meaning; therefore, if any significant time delay passes between recordation of the URL by the person and use of the URL, the person may forget what advertiser or product the URL is associated with.
When an interesting URL is encountered in a Web document, an e-mail, or another source, existing technology does not provide a rapid and convenient way to record the URL for subsequent use. For example, using present browser technology, a user can immediately visit the Website identified by the URL and then copy the URL to a bookmark list. The user is essentially forced to visit the Website even though the user desires to visit it at some future time.
Alternatively, the user can copy the URL using conventional editing commands, and then paste it into a text file prepared by the user; however, using this approach there is no convenient way to load the URL into a browser at a future time.
For all these reasons, there is a need for methods, apparatus and products that can store a network address from a source text in a list for future reference and use. There is also a need for such methods, apparatus and products that can store such network addresses in an ordered way, and provide an automatic way to retrieve network addresses from the list at a subsequent time.
There also is a need for methods, apparatus, and products that enable a person exposed to a network address in a source document to retrieve information referenced in the source document conveniently and without error.
The invention provides a method, apparatus, and computer program product for managing a network address by retrieving the network address from a source document or signal and placing it in a list for subsequent use. The list is automatically pruned as a network resource at the network address is visited.
In one approach, a method comprises the steps of storing a network address that is selected during a network communication session in a list, and deleting the network address from the list when the network address is visited. In one aspect, a method further comprises the step of testing whether a connection to a network resource identified by the network address is a successful connection. Another aspect is marking the network address as pending unless the connection is a successful connection.
In yet another aspect, a method further comprises the steps of attempting a second connection to the network resource when the network address is marked as pending, and deleting the network address from the list unless the second connection is a successful connection. Another feature is identifying the network address from an image selected from a broadcast signal.
In another aspect, a method further comprises storing the image as an image file; identifying a text item in the image file; and parsing the text item to identify the network address therein. A feature of this aspect is performing optical character recognition (OCR) on the image file to identify the text item in the image file. Another feature is checking whether the string is a valid Uniform Resource Locator (URL), by connecting to a computer network; requesting information from a location in the computer network that is identified by the string; and testing whether the step of requesting information resulted in a successful retrieval.
The invention also encompasses a computer system and a computer software product configured with the foregoing features and aspects.
The foregoing and other features, aspects and advantages of the present invention will become more apparent from the following detailed description of the present invention when taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.